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CNN Live Today

Carter in Cuba

Aired May 13, 2002 - 11:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour on CNN, Carter in Cuba. The former president toured a biotech lab on the outskirts of Havana this morning. Carter's visit to the island, a first by a U.S. president since Calvin Coolidge, is taking on new significance.

The Bush administration, fighting the war on terror, now accuses Cuba of trying to make biological weapons.

Our Kate Snow is traveling with President Carter and joins us from Havana.

Kate, those are some pretty serious charges by the Bush administration.

KATE SNOW, CNN ACORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are, and they're being taken very seriously, here, Daryn. In fact, President Castro delivering a speech the other night in which he vehemently denied those charges. He said he called them "lies of Olympic proportion."

He said President Carter, yesterday when he arrived, he said he can go wherever he wants and meet with anyone he wants. And along those lines, they were just a little while ago arriving at this biocenter -- this biotechnology center and a center for genetic engineering. President Carter was to be taken around with his entourage and with Fidel Castro. Taken around this center and meeting with scientists who work there.

Now Castro has said he can talk to anyone he wants, but we probably should point out that no one on Carter's team here is really a trained biologist or scientist. Many of them are political scientists, but they are not trained in genetic engineering or biotechnology. But they are getting that tour.

Earlier today, President Carter took another opportunity to meet with two political dissidents who live here on the island. Now this was not a pre-scheduled meeting. We understand that one of them got the call around midnight last night. The two men are very well known outside of Cuba for their work as political dissidents.

One is the head of a human rights organization here that's fairly well known outside of Cuba. And the other is the head of something called Projecto Varella (ph), or the Varella (ph) Project. Now that's a project that was organized to gather signatures on a petition. They turned that petition in on Friday, just a few days ago, to the general assembly of the country, the government. The petition has 11,000 signatures of Cubans, which is something that was dangerous just to gather. They said at times they were stopped from gathering signatures. But they did hand in that petition that calls for a referendum on human rights; essentially a referendum on the Castro regime and the government here. Which would, of course, be a remarkable step if that were allowed.

Now, Daryn, we wanted to tell you a little bit about where we are here. We're in Old Havana. They call it Havana Vieja. And we're on a point -- they call it La Punta, the point.

And you can see behind me some fortifications there. There's a lighthouse up there. These are old Spanish colonial forts that were used, of course, when the Spanish were inn charge here. There's sort of a bay back behind there. They used to every night run a cable or chain across from that fort to this fort over here, blocking off the entranceway here so ships couldn't get in past dark.

Every night now at 9:00 PM every night they sound the canons here. They shoot off a canon sort of just as a historical, you know, reenactment of what used to happen. There's also a statue over here that's kind of interesting. That man on a horse is a Cuban who fought for independence from Spain.

Anyway, we'll leave it there for you, Daryn. I just wanted to give you a sense of where we are. We're on the Malacone (ph), which is a street that's very well known in Havana. People come here to stroll and to fish and to swim. And I think we might jump in here any time now, because it's getting a little warm -- Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: All right. We will leave you to cool off and check back in with you later. Kate Snow in Havana.

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